Halloween Hits – A Cowboy Legend

By Bennett Owen

Credit: Stefano Costantini

My gut feeling is that Ghost Riders in the Sky was inspired by a western cloudburst, one that echoes off the mountaintops and where the lightning rips great holes in the firmament.  The author, Stan Jones says the lyrics are based on a tale a cowboy told him when he was a young lad.

But since its first release in 1949 ‘A Cowboy Legend’ has ensconced itself firmly into America’s discography, a unique and evocative tale that has been retold by more than 50 artists.  Burl Ives did it first but the Sons of the Pioneers, Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins recorded their own classic versions.

Here’s an old recording by The Sons of the Pioneers with Stan Jones telling the story behind the song:

And here’s the Johnny Cash version:

Comments

[Gina Putnam]

Dark clouds slide across the desert. The sun dims, everything hesitates and waits. The air is full of tension. Winds shake up the trees and all desert critters rush to their burrows. A blast of thunder opens the sky to lightning which flashes into fire wherever it pierces the earth. Again, thunder ricochets between the clouds. Lightning stabs fear through the air. Trees splinter and crack. Look into the storm and you see many things, some of them frightening, some of them beautiful. The desert absorbs them, accepts the following rain and is washed clean.